Decorah Superintendent Mark Lane updates Decorah Rotary Club about how the district is navigating COVID-19

Much has transpired since Decorah Community School District's Superintendent Mark Lane last spoke in April at the Decorah Rotary Club.  On Tuesday, Lane updated DRC members on how the district has navigated the school year in the current COVID-19 pandemic environment.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds held a news conference March 16th to announce she was requiring school districts to switch to virtual learning.  Lane said, "School ever since that day has been in a state of constant change."

DCSD's goal is to have face-to-face, in-person learning as much as possible, but there's been a lot of changes happening.  These changes range from doing total remote learning to total in-school learning.  Lane emphasized how rapidly these changes have happened, saying, "All these things have happened in the first 70 days of school."

With all these quick changes, Decorah staff has made it their goal to "plan ahead, adjust as you go."

Lane continued his update, remarking about the district being "very lucky" that there has never been more than 9 active COVID-19 cases at one time in the schools.  Since August 19th, there have been a total of 50 positive cases.

"We feel good about what is happening in the environments we control," Lane said, but there is concern about what happens away from school.

Lane concluded, "I think we will be feeling the impacts of this for years to come."